Child maltreatment recidivism is typically measured and studied at the individual level. Conditions that give rise to child abuse and neglect, however, typically affect multiple children in a given family. In the current study, we estimated maltreatment recidivism at the maternal level and examined its risk as a function of maternal sociodemographic characteristics that may change over time. Using linked administrative records, we identified a subset of first-time mothers in California whose first child was reported to the child protection system (CPS) between birth and age 5 and who then gave birth to another child (n = 14,715). Following the firstborn child's CPS reporting, nearly half of these mothers (43.3%) were re-reported concerning the non-firstborn children during the first 5 years of the child's life. Risk factors consistently documented across births were associated with a heightened risk of maternal CPS recidivism. Our study advances an understanding of the full extent of maltreatment recidivism by broadening the focus from individual children.
Keywords: administrative data; child maltreatment; maternal CPS recidivism; risk factors.